Results of Russian citizen’s tests do not confirm Ebola

The man most likely has SARS

VLADIVOSTOK, February 2. /TASS/. Results of the tests made at the Novosibirsk virology and biotechnology center prove the Russian citizen is not infected with the Ebola virus.

The man most likely has SARS. This information is preliminary, and the final results are due on February 3, the local healthcare department told TASS on Monday.

A Russian citizen of 33 with suspected Ebola, staff member of the Red Cross, was taken by plane to a hospital in Novosibirsk as the plane from Moscow landed in Vladivostok (in Far East) on Sunday.

The man was taken to the virology and biotechnology center. A mobile division adjusted for treatment of dangerous infections was organized on Sunday, immediately following the information the dangerous illness may have been brought to the region, representative of the local healthcare department Kseniya Gusentsova told TASS. She said the patient’s state remains stable.

The staff member of the International Committee of the Red Cross, who returned recently after work in Senegal and Guinea, arrived in Vladivostok from Moscow by an Aeroflot flight. During the flight he complained about fever and poor conditions. The flight attendants isolated the man in the rear part of the plane. On landing at the airport, healthcare experts suspected the man of being infected with Ebola and the decision was to take him to a specialised hospital.

All the people on board the flight, visited doctors. For a month on, both passengers and the crew will be monitored by their local doctors.

"All the services, which were involved in meeting the passenger suspected of being infected with Ebola, worked properly," deputy governor Pavel Serebryakov said. "They have practiced actions at several specialised drills."

Aeroflot’s Boeing-777, which brought on Sunday morning from Moscow to Vladivostok the man with suspected Ebola, was disinfected fully. Due to the disinfection procedures, the return flight was delayed by one hour.

Russia has not yet registered cases of illnesses caused by the Ebola virus. In late October, 2014, in Komsomolsk-on-Amur to hospital were taken a mother and her nine-month old baby, who had returned from Nigeria. Luckily, their tests were negative. Another suspicion was about a woman, who arrived in Moscow from Paris on January 19. Her tests were negative, too.